1909.] Imports of Agricultural Produce in 1908. 745 



Total Imports of Meat. — Converting the live animals into 

 their equivalent weight of meat and adding the total imports 

 of dead meat of all kinds (excluding poultry and game), it 

 appears that this country consumed, in addition to the home 

 supply, some 22,205,000 cwt. compared with 22,586,600 cwt. 

 in 1907. The total value credited to the different kinds of 

 live and dead meat, including poultry, was ^49,489,000 as 

 compared with ^51,888,000 in 1907 and ^52,026,000 in 1906. 



IMPORTS of Dairy Produce, Margarine, and Eggs. 



Description. 



Quantity. 



Value. 



1907. 



1908. 



1907. 



1908. 





Cwt. 



Cwt. 



£ 



£ 



Butter ... 



4,210,156 



4,211,195 



22,417,926 



24,082,537 



Margarine 



885,068 



813,447 



2,223,645 



2,081,240 



Cheese ... 



2,372,233 



2,306,086 



6,905,509 



6,684,203 



Milk, condensed 



911,771 



921,019 



1*599,465 



1,607,524 





Great 





Great 







hundreds. 





hundreds. 





Eggs 



18,567,901 



18,210,070 



7,135,530 



7,183,112 



Butter. — Of all the imported foodstuffs, butter accounts for 

 a larger sum of money than any other single item, except 

 wheat, and the declared value of the supply of this product 

 as it reached our shores in 1908 amounted to ^24,083,000. 

 Denmark is by far the largest exporter to this country, and 

 furnished 1,857,000 cwt., which was slightly above the figure 

 for 1907. Russia was the next largest exporting country, and 

 supplied 639,000 cwt. The Colonies of Victoria, New South 

 Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand sent only 621,000 cwt. 

 as against 901,800 cwt. in 1907 and 857,500 cwt. in 1906, 

 while the amount credited to Canada was unimportant com- 

 pared with some previous years. Perhaps the most notice- 

 able feature was the substantial advance made by Holland and 

 France, the former country sending 244,000 cwt. as against 

 168,000 cwt. in 1907, and the latter 395,000 cwt. compared 

 with 281,000 cwt. in the earlier year. The average value of 

 the imported butter was 114s. qd. per cwt. compared with 

 io6s« 6d. in 1907, and this is a higher figure than any pre- 

 viously recorded. 



3 B 



